New bond measure for GG Park makes way toward ballot

Rachel Gordon, OF THE EXAMINER STAFF

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, June 23, 1998

1998-06-23 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Stung by the defeat of a ballot measure to rebuild the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, backers of a proposed bond to upgrade the California Academy of Sciences are nonetheless moving forward - but with caution.

The Board of Supervisors on Monday paved the way to place a $79.9 million bond measure on an upcoming ballot, despite the emergence of opposition by the same crew that helped deep-six the proposed $90 million de Young bond on the June 2 ballot.

"When will the supervisors learn that every time you pass one of these things on you just get more and more people upset?" Howard Strassner of the San Francisco Sierra Club testified at a City Hall hearing Monday. "Each time there are more groups finding more reasons to oppose."

The de Young bond, which needed two-thirds majority support to win, garnered 64 percent of the "yes" vote. The loss was blamed on several factors, among them: It was caught in a war between landlords and tenants over who will pay off the bonds; opponents raised the issue of whether other capital projects should come first; and several leading environmentalists opposed the plan because of its ties to the construction of an underground parking garage, which voters did approve.

Now the question is whether a proposed academy bond could withstand the same assaults.

"No one wants to go into a battle and spend a lot of money if there are serious storm clouds on the horizon," said Supervisor Michael Yaki, a sponsor of the proposed academy bond. "Over the next weeks we're going to try to divine the weather forecast and intervene as much as possible."

The board will decide next month whether to place the plan on the November ballot, or to put it off until next year. Supervisor Mabel Teng called on academy officials and their campaign strategists to lay out their plans before the board makes its final decision.

"The academy's campaign this fall will offer a similar tough political environment and I want to make sure the campaign is viable and is winnable," Teng said.

De Young trustees and others spent nearly $2 million on two unsuccessful campaigns in two separate elections. They're now mulling whether to try a third.

As for the California Academy of Sciences, which sits across Golden Gate Park's music concourse from the de Young, officials say a large infusion of cash is needed to shore up the complex, which sustained damage in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and suffers from leaking roofs and other signs of old age.

Supporters have vowed to raise $50 million in private donations to supplement the bond money.

But Philip Carleton, a leader in the anti-de Young bond campaign who has now turned his attention to the academy, said taxpayers' dollars could be better spent.

"I think that the academy, with its ties to science, could be raising far more money when we have needs like Laguna Honda Hospital," he said.

"This is not an either-or. Laguna Honda is not ready to come forward with a bond measure. They don't even know what the costs are, what the needs are," she said.

"The Academy of Sciences is a major, major educational institution that is revered in the West. . . . To start pitting children against people who need long-term care is nonsense," she added. "That's not what this discussion should be about." &lt;